Tabbers brings long run bookletmaking in-house

Tabbers has bought a Duplo Digital 600 system with trimmer to enable it to complete all bookletmaking work in-house.

The Harlow, Essex-based company took delivery of the system around two weeks ago. It had been using a Duplo System 2000 booklet line for finishing short-run digital work, typically up to 500 copies, but decided to sell that device as it required a machine that could also handle its litho capacity.

Production director Reece Robinson said: “I would say that this is foremost a digital machine, but it’s got the capacity to run litho quantities on it.

“We’re currently running a job on it that’s a 70,000-run of a 12-page booklet. We had previously been using outworkers for jobs like that, but we’ve now been able to bring it all in-house.

“We looked at other options, including Horizon and Morgana, but the Duplo stood out for us. Duplo have been very good to us and their training has been absolutely fantastic.”

Capable of producing up to 5,200 booklets per hour, the Digital 600 System will be used to complete work from the company’s five-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 75 B2 press and its HP Indigo 5600, which has recently been taken on to replace an aging Indigo 5000.

“The 5000 was starting to get on its last legs and the right secondhand machine came up at the right price. While it’s four years old, it has only done four million impressions in that time,” said Robinson.

The business also runs a wide range of finishing kit and its services include foil blocking, die-cutting and embossing.

Tabbers, which started out as a tab manufacturer, employs 37 staff and turns over around £6m from a production site and a nearby warehouse.

As well as offering commercial and trade print and finishing services to customers including banks and legal firms, the company supplies printroom consumables, tabbed dividers and office stationery.